At halfway point, Mentor's bowhunting season has eliminated 90 deer, generated some complaints

By Betsy Scott

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

This weekend marks the midpoint of Mentor's bowhunting season and the program appears to be making a dent in the population.

At least 90 white-tailed deer have been harvested and permit applications from prospective hunters continue to come in. More than 50 permits have been issued to date.

Some residents believe a bowhunt is inhumane and have expressed concern to city officials about a couple of incidents.

At a recent City Council meeting, Dan Welker complained about the city initially issuing permits to hunters on 12 acres of land owned by Bible Community Church, which operates a K-12 school at the site. Although the hunting was planned on the back part of the property during nonschool hours, he successfully argued that it violated a state school safety zone statute.

Welker also chastised officials about a situation in which a buck shot by a hunter wandered off an approved hunting zone and died in a nonpermitted area. The hunter, in violation of the city's law, didn't contact the city but instead retrieved it. The deed was discovered after the property owner saw evidence of the dead animal.

Timothy Hejduk, 34, of Geneva, pleaded guilty to hunting without permission. He was sentenced to pay a $500 fine, forfeit the deer, and serve three months probation and five days volunteering.

Hejduk's permit was permanently revoked and there have been no other reports of illegal activity, Mentor Natural Resource Specialist Nick Mikash said.

"Overall, we are pleased with the results of the program and hunters seem to be satisfied as well," he said.

The city's hunting ordinance was adopted by a 5-2 vote in September. The limited bowhunt was proposed as a way to help control the deer population after counts and other evidence indicated that there were too many to maintain environmental and herd health.

Safety also factored in. The city has the highest number of vehicle-animal accidents among Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency's 170 communities, in Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorain and Medina counties, according to statistics compiled in a 2009 strategic plan to reduce such collisions.